so often divided, divided along lines of race, divided along lines of class, divided along lines of religion. and so we have this enormous, tragic history that all of us confront from whatever our backgrounds are whether we're white, black, hispanic, asian, whether we're muslim, jew or christian. the notion that, in fact, in the words of a great writer who happened to win a nobel prize, william faulkner, he said the past is never dead and buried, it isn't even past. and i think that all of us are confronting constantly our history. we're confronting the history of slavery in this country. we're confronting the history and problems that arose as a consequence of colonialism. we're confronting those scars of violence and oppression and struggle and difficulty and hope not only on the larger canvas of history, but also within our own families. and for me it was not entirely obvious how, in fact, i was going to be able to integrate and pull together all those different strands in my life. so part of my challenge growing up was to figure out how do i function as someone who is black but also has